Members of the Chicago Blackhawks celebrate after defeating the Boston Bruins 3-2 in Game 6 of the 2013 Stanley Cup Final at TD Garden. / Brian Fluharty, USA TODAY Sports

by Kevin Allen, USA TODAY Sports

by Kevin Allen, USA TODAY Sports

BOSTON - The Chicago Blackhawks are the NHL champions today because they are players who always believe and are led by a captain who never quits.

"(Jonathan Toews) is the engine behind the team," Chicago defenseman Michal Rozsival said. "He plays the right way. It's not that he's just a skilled guy. He plays the right way, every single game, every single day."

When the Blackhawks needed a goal to get them started in Game 6, their leader Toews scored it. When they needed a late goal to keep their hopes alive, he set it up with a perfect centering feed to Bryan Bickell, starting a stretch of two Chicago goals in 17 seconds.

"He had a monster game," Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said.

Toews did it all 48 hours after he was injured enough that team officials wouldn't let him play in the third period, even though Toews insisted he could. Quenneville said Toews had his "bell rung" in Game 5, which is hockey speak for suffering concussion-like symptoms.

When coaches wouldn't let Toews play late in Game 5, he came to the bench to cheerlead (and debate coaches about his playing status).

"Every shift he plays, he plays for the team," Rozsival said. "He's a great captain and great leader."

In the 1980s and into the 1990s, Mark Messier and Steve Yzerman were yardsticks by which all captains were judged. Today, Toews is recognized as the prototype for how a captain should act and play.

"Keep the bars open - we're coming home, " Toews said after he lifted the Cup for the second time. "We're going to fill the Cup up tonight, and we're going to share it with the city of Chicago."

Maybe it wasn't quite as memorable as Messier's guarantee, but those words are vintage Toews. He's a player who knows what should be said for his team and his city.

"To come back after not playing (last game) â?¦ he made a quick recovery," said Hall of Fame coach Scotty Bowman, who works for the Blackhawks as a consultant. "Then he came out for us and scored a huge goal because things weren't going that well for us."

Toews scored at 4:24 of the second period to tie the score after Chris Kelly had given Boston a 1-0 lead in the first period.

"If Boston gets that next goal, I don't know if we come back from 2-0," Bowman said.

Late in the third period, the Bruins claimed a 2-1 lead on Milan Lucic's goal. Again it was Toews coming to the rescue, setting up Bickell with a perfect feed across the goalmouth. It was Toews' fifth point in the last three games since he was reunited with his favorite linemate Patrick Kane. Toews was plus 5 in those games.

The bigger the game, the bigger the setting, you know what you're going to get from Jonathan Toews," Quenneville said. "He just knows how to play hockey."

It was as if the Blackhawks ran the table in this abbreviated 48-game season. They launched the regular season with a league-record 24 consecutive games of not losing in regulation. They finished by winning the President's Trophy as the league's No. 1 team.

"You work so hard for almost two months, and then you finally get one game where the Cup's going to be in the building and you have a chance to win it," Toews said. "Then all of a sudden all of these thoughts start running through your head all day. I hardly slept last night."

To win the Stanley Cup, the Blackhawks downed in the playoffs the last two NHL champions (Boston and Los Angeles Kings) and the Detroit Red Wings, a franchise that has been in the playoffs every year for decades-plus.

"And this was a pretty deep Boston team," Bowman said. "They had 17 guys who had won (in 2011). â?¦ If you lose tonight, Boston has a lot of confidence."

Toews sets a tone of excellence for this Chicago team. Marian Hossa was playing with a numb foot because of a disk issue. Several players were playing with nagging injuries.

"This team has a lot of resolve," Bowman said.

As the seconds were ticking away in Game 6, the Blackhawks were thinking they were going to have to play a Game 7, but they weren't committing to it.

"We didn't give up. We were going to throw everything at them," Bickell said. "It was crazy. We just got guys in front, and good things happened."

Toews happened. Off the bench, he got the puck and took it to the net. That's who he is, and it's what he does.

"Toews just got it in front, and I just buried it," Bickell said. "What a roller coaster it was."

Bolland scored the game-winner 17 seconds later to place the game among the league's most dramatic late-game comebacks in Stanley Cup history.

"I felt the same way as I did in Game 6 in 2010," Toews said. "We better win it tonight, because I can't take any more of this stress."